The Blessings of a Good Wife

Those wives are good to have around. I think I'll keep my wife for a few more centuries if she's up for it too.

You would think that someone who is shelling out tons of money for a new house would be concerned with the contract that determines so much. You'd think.

We're thinking of trying to get a house, and have even gone so far as to start getting the contract together. Charlessa, bless her, wanted to do something silly like actually reading it ahead of time. Who cares about earnest money being non-refundable, or being on the hook for old HOA dues, or repairs to be made to major problems before purchase, or deadlines on responding at different places?!?! I mean really! Why can't we just sign and initial contracts without going to all that boring stuff like studying them.

Sigh. That would be something like reason 42,138 that I love her and I'm glad we're married. I've lost track.

Wonderful Husband!

WOW! I have such a wonderful husband!!
He takes out the trash and re-fuels my car! (Along with many wonderful things I don't want to try to count here!)

Oh why not list a few more....
He helps with the yard work--"mowing" the back yard, raking, sweeping and picking up the yard waste, trimming the vines!
He cleans the gutters and puts the gutter pipes back together!
He watches movies with me.
He brushes out my wet hair! (And with my hair more than half-way down my back right now, that's not a small task!)
He gives wonderful foot rubs!
He takes Jer, and other kids from the church hiking.
He puts together picnic lunches to eat at the park!

...And that's just the list from this weekend that I can come up with off the top of my head!

In the Night

At some point last night as I drifted briefly into consciousness in order to find a more comfortable position, Jesse paid me a compliment. While he is generous with his compliments (which I appreciate greatly), this particular incident was a unique enough to stick in my memory even as I fell directly back to sleep.

This morning, as we were getting dressed, Jesse related a dream from last night. When he got to the part of the dream that included a compliment, it was the exact same compliment I'd heard in the night!

I guess it still counts. :)

Living Life

Please don't be alarmed by the fact that there are currently three contributors to this blog. I'm in the process of sorting out which e-mail accounts and which Google accounts I want to keep and which one I want to use. So at the moment, I'm a contributor from two different accounts. I'm still deciding how I want to handle accounts, so I'm not sure if this is a temporary arrangement or a long-term arrangement.

My sticking point is that I want to use one Google account as my primary e-mail account and I want to use the other Google account as my primary blogging account. Since Google doesn't allow one to log into two different accounts at the same time (even if one is blogger and one is e-mail), I have to re-login everytime I want switch between e-mail and blogging. That has been part of the reason my blog posting has been down in recent months.

Despite the lack of posts, life has been going very well for us. Jesse still surprises me with text messages and the so many little things he does for me--hot tea, foot rubs, opening doors, or just waking me up with a kiss.

I'm sure no one's cares.....but it was 31 months ago that we started dating and 22 months ago that we got engaged!

She said, now he said

/* Warning, may contain mush. */

It's silly-grin time at the McConnell household! Yeah, I've been sporting one since yesterday morning.

I happen to highly approve of Valentines Day because it gives me a wonderful excuse to do all the stuff I like doing, but feel silly doing without an excuse. She thinks that a foot massage is something I do for her, but little does she realize she's playing into my schemes to hold and snuggle with her. The poor girl keeps falling for the same old ruse, every time too!

Not only that, but she does all sorts of really wonderful things like write me cards and leave me a wonderful egg hunt for notes hidden throughout the house! So not only do I get to give her foot rubs, but she then leaves notes for me!

I've got the most wonderful wife in the world, because she really does know how to perfectly compliment me. Where I'm weak, she builds me up and encourages me. Where I'm rash she manages to get me to re-think (a miracle for those who know me well). And she even adds in wonderful bits of surprise to my life in the most wonderful ways! (ex. easter eggs with notes in them)

Yeah, I'm blessed beyond measure!

Valentine's Day - the beginning

Our second Valentine's Day. Wow, we've started the seconds...guess we've been married for a while. But you wouldn't know it by the way Jesse is treating today!

I only gave him a card and a bag of candy before he left for work this morning. Actually, the bag of candy probably doesn't even count--Jesse bought it for himself on Christmas clearance, but forgot about it and I found it while cleaning earlier this week.

On the other hand, Jesse has been dropping reminders for me to pick up the mail this week. When I picked it up over lunch, there was a package from China that I had to sign for. I haven't opened it yet, just because I know Jesse would've opened it by now! :)

When I got back from lunch, there was a bouquet of flowers on my desk! I put them in water and am looking forward to the lilies(?) opening out of their bud form. Meanwhile, their buds still add great color and contrast around the pink roses.

No big plans for the evening at this point (to my knowledge), just a regular clogging night.

On Jesse's Car

Jesse chose to get a personalized license plate for his car:
MRD MYLV

I love you too!

Newlyweds

10 months married and we are still very much newly weds.

• I miss Jesse when he's not around...sometimes even when he's just in another room.
• We still disgust my brother by kissing when we get home.
• To the new employee, I was introduced as "the one who has bunches of flowers from her husband."
• Jesse sends me love notes (like the e-mail this afternoon--thank you my love!), that remind me how much he thinks of me!
• We joke about our first fight being who loves whom more.

Lately, I've been remembering especially my friends who are newly married, but who are unable to share their first year together because he is serving overseas. Avril & Chris and Abigail & Matt, you are in my prayers and thoughts! I thank you all for your heroic sacrifice for country and freedom!

Our failed approach to marriage

Obviously, we don't do very well at keeping resolutions.

We'd broken our resolution to not say "I love you" less than 12 hours after we'd made it. (I think we only lasted that long cause most of the time we were at work.) We gave up completely on the resolution within 24 hours.

Jesse, I love you!

As for the resolution to not talk to each other....the times we observe it seem to be more problematic than the times we don't. We'll have to work on that one some more.

Our new approach to marriage

About 8:00 this morning, we decided that we had each said "I love you" often enough. We'll just remember that the other person has told us and not bother with saying it and repeating ourselves.

This new marriage philosophy was confirmed by reading the blog of respected friends who have been married longer than we have. They had an experience that once again proves that the best way to avoid fights between married people is not to talk to each other.

Thus, Jesse and I have resolved not to talk to each other* and most definitely to avoid saying those three words that have been constantly repeated.

*Exceptions to this resolve have already been established for e-mail conversations and cell phone calls. Further exceptions to this resolve will be considered as occurences arise in which we feel like we need to talk.

Second honeymoon already?

Well, not quite, but close. We're heading back down to Massanutten this weekend (where we spent the second half of our honeymoon).

This time it's with family, the McConnell side, but it's still a weekend at a resort! Maybe this time we'll actually be able to enjoy the activities they provide, like a huge indoor water park!

Who'd have thought? Not I!

SJ over at Keeping Up puts up some great posts (the one I'm thinking of at the moment is Defective Christian). Her struggle with really getting into the Word and enjoying it the way that a Christian ideally should is "me too". Most of my reading of the Bible is relatively dry, in that I don't usually get excited about the reading. I like it and I'm usually touched by what it has to say to me, but I can't say that I usually enjoy it and finding it fascinating.

That has changed now that I have someone there studying it with me. We've just finished reading through Exodus and its looooooong descriptions of the tent, the ark, the altars, the utensils, the curtains, the framing, the clothing, etc. It's actually been less painful that I was fearing, and even at points it has been fun and interesting! I doubt that I've suddenly become a more fervent Christian (though I can hope!), so my only explanation is Charlessa. Having someone there who can discuss things, who will offer their own insights, and who encourages just by being company and a companion in the endeavor boosts the enjoyment and delight in studying the scriptures.

If iron sharpens iron, Jesus attends when 2 or more are gathered in His name, and companions mean there is someone to pick the other up, then shouldn't married couples be the ultimate fighting force in the Christian world? Where else is there the constant rubbing which sharpens and soothes? Who has the opportunity to more regularly join together in Christ? Who else knows most intimately and is there most constantly to see when encouragement and assistance is needed?

I had thought that having the extra "pressure" to be a spiritual leader would help me to seek the Lord more diligently through reading and prayer. But I didn't imagine that being with Charlessa would, just through the companionship, change my feelings about seeking God quite so much!

Being married is SO cool!

Shockingly Electrifying Kisses

Charlessa gives the most hair-raising kisses! We have definitely got a spark going on between us! She really lights me up! Being together gives me a real charge! Kissing Charlessa electrifies me! It's positively shocking how good a kisser she is! I am positive that she's the one for me!

We were having fun with static electricity when we got home last night. My rubber-soled moccasins made great static charge builders. It made us a bit hesitant leaning in for a kiss. Static electricity shocks between lips can hurt!

The Excuses We Use!

It's snowing a bit today, not much, but PHC closed for similar conditions earlier this year, so we wanted to call in to make sure they were open today. But perhaps because of the conditions, the phone system at the college was down. So what do C&I do? Get ready and go anyway? Make some contingency plans just in case PHC is closed? Start getting ready while continuing to try to call? Nope, nope and nope.

We stay curled up in a nice, warm bed and lazily reach over to grab the phone to call again every couple minutes. They might get the phones back up, and they might cancel classes! Oh, we finally got to work, and even on time (almost) but it was a struggle.

I think I hate Tuesdays too.